An emulator, sometimes also referred to as a sandbox, is a virtual computing environment that emulates a real-world computing environment in order to fool a software application executing therein into believing that it is executing in the real-world computing environment. For example, if an application is suspected of being a potentially malicious application, such as a virus, ransomware, or malware, the application may first be executed, or quarantined, in an emulator for a quarantine time period. While executing in the emulator, the application can be monitored to determine if the application exhibits any malicious behaviors, sometimes referred to as malicious payloads. If so, the suspected application can be confirmed to be a malicious application and can be discarded. If not, the application can be approved for execution in the real-world computing environment as a clean application.
The subject matter claimed herein is not limited to embodiments that solve any disadvantages or that operate only in environments such as those described above. Rather, this background is only provided to illustrate one example technology area where some embodiments described herein may be practiced.